Dyeing Adventures and Misadventures

12/11/14 Edit:  I realized after posting this that I forgot to mention the reason I was dyeing the fabric in the first place!  And many of you may not have known that I was planning to...

make it blue!

Because Merryweather is my hero.  

Actually, I just wanted a blue wedding dress because white is boring.  And I wanted it to match my ring.  

On to the story:  

Warning:  This is a long and technical post with many pictures of fabric in a washing machine. 

I finally dyed my fabric!  I was so nervous, I kept putting it off... But I had to bite the bullet eventually.  Last Monday night I finally took the plunge.  

Though the dyeing saga actually begins even before I purchased my fabric...

...Back in October!  I had ordered several fabric swatches online, looking for just the right weight and feel.  I wanted silk, for the luster and the drape.  I also knew that silk takes dye very well, and I knew that dyeing was the best way to get the exact color that I wanted.

Once I had compiled all my swatches, I tested them with a diluted dye bath of RIT Aquamarine.

Four of my silks were from Dharma Trading.  I cut my swatches in distinct patterns so I could match them back up with their labels after dyeing:

The other samples were from etsy sellers, and one quilt store.

The bottom left sample, which was dyed twice, is the fabric I ended up ordering.

Just over eleven yards of beautiful ivory silk satin arrived at my doorstep on November 7, while I was at home recuperating from wisdom teeth removal.  It was definitely the best thing that happened to me that day.  :p

The Etsy seller, The Fabric Depot, sold me their entire stock of silk satin.  So no more, guys.  Sorry.  :(  But they do have other fabrics, and excellent customer service!

I serged both raw edges, and serged off a one-inch strip of the full width of the fabric, to use for more test-dyeing.

Then I washed it all with Woolite.

And hung it over the shower curtain to dry.  This was folded into quarters:

All that to prepare for last Monday!  First I had to trick my washing machine into filling more than halfway.  Brian-the-fiancé's idea was to use weights, which sort of worked.

And I assembled all of my tools and supplies:

Vinegar, RIT dye, rubber gloves, and previously-dyed test swatch

I pre-soaked the fabric so it would take the dye evenly, then set it aside in a laundry basket lined with an old shower curtain.  I also soaked 2 1/2 yards of 90" wide cotton muslin that will be used as the lining for my train.  The cotton soaked up so much water, and had to be wrung out, but with the silk the water just slid right off as I pulled it out of the tub!  Which is good, because it would be way too heavy otherwise.

I wasn't happy with the amount of water in the machine, so I had Brian fill up some pots of water to supplement it.

Had to get a shot of him helping, too:

After I was happy with the water level, I added about a cup of vinegar and a slosh* of dye.

*technical term

This is more or less what I remember the color being when I did my dye tests.  

 I tested the long strip in the dye bath, and ironed the end of it to see the color when dry.

It came out too light, so I dyed it again with better results.  Then I took a deep breath and started loading my silk.  I did this slowly, working from one end of the long yardage to the other, and pushing the fabric down under the water with my gloved hand to let the air escape.  Then I added the cotton on top.

After kneading and stirring the fabric around in the dye for about 10 or 15 minutes, I couldn't help but notice that the silk was looking distinctly... green.

I also noticed that the water pretty much looked clear now, so I surmised that it was very likely that all the of the dye had already been absorbed into the fabric.

So I closed the lid and let the washer finish its cycle, and took my fabric out after the spin cycle.  I again hung the silk over the shower curtain rod (over a towel so it wouldn't get a hideous crease at the top) and let it dry overnight.  I tossed the cotton in the dryer, however.

I was rather discouraged by two things.  One, the silk definitely looked green, while the cotton still looked pretty much white:

Two, the end I had added to the dye first definitely soaked up more color than the other end:

So guess what I did on Tuesday!

More dye!

 This time I put the cotton in first.  I also made a much stronger dye bath, and added more vinegar.

Then I put the silk in from the other end first (after pre-soaking it once again).  I stirred and kneaded the fabric for about ten minutes again, then pushed all the cloth down to the bottom of the tub.

Midway through the wash cycle I checked on it, and all the fabric had floated up to the top of the water level.  I pushed it down again and let it continue.  Here's how it looked after the spin dry:

I was very happy with the color this time!  I tossed the cotton into the dryer again.  But upon closer inspection, I wasn't thrilled with the evenness of color in the silk, so I put it through a wash cycle with Woolite to see if that would help.

If it had any effect, I couldn't tell.  Oh well.  I put it back up to dry one last time.

But it definitely looks blue now!  

 On Wednesday I took it all to work with me to press it.  (After work, of course.)

This went much faster using my favorite industrial gravity-fed steam iron and the large ironing table than it would have done at home using my own rather whimpy iron and standard-sized ironing board.

I love this thing.

There are definitely still irregularities in the color of the silk, but fortunately they are more noticeable from the back side of the cloth.  

I used a cardboard tube to roll up the pressed fabric as I went.  I made use of the fact that the long crease from being folded on the bolt soaked up more dye and created a rather pronounced line down the center of the fabric.  It helped me keep it straight and even as I rolled.  Silver linings!

And you can see it is less visible on the satin side (on the roll).  

 It took me 45 minutes to press the entire yardage, but it looks so much better now!

And in spite of all my stressing, I am quite pleased with the overall result.  Now it's time to take the mockup apart and cut out the dress proper!  

The Corset

Since my gown will have an off-the-shoulder neckline, I knew I would need appropriate undergarments.  However, I hate strapless bras.  Also, I know from working in bridal and doing countless alterations on predominantly strapless wedding gowns that the fit of the gown needs to allow for the bulk of the weight to rest on the hip shelf.  To me, the obvious solution is a corset.  This will give me the lift and support that I want in the bust, while giving me a foundation through the waist and hips for the gown to rest on.  The point of the corset is comfort.  I know from experience that it is much more comfortable to wear 18th century clothing, for example, with (well-fitting) stays than without.  Since the silhouette of my gown is very much Victorian-inspired, I naturally need a Victorian corset.  

I started with Simplicity 9769, and I found this great review/tutorial on making a mockup corset and finding the correct fit.  It was extremely helpful, especially the bit about using a separating zipper to simulate a front busk.  (She eliminated the front busk in her finished corset, but I'm keeping it in mine.)  Here is my test corset with bones inserted and alterations made to my shape:  

I did my alterations a little differently - instead of using a mix of different sizes, I simply took in the excess material at the seam allowances to eliminate the gapping at the bust.

I did the actual fitting of the corset on myself, not on the dress form.  It fits me better than it fits Anna.  Her waist is slightly smaller than mine but her hips and bust are bigger, which is why there's weird wrinkling in the middle.

After I finalized the fit, I traced the original pattern pieces onto heavy-duty brown paper and marked the adjustments to the seam allowances from the test corset.  Then it was time to cut out my fashion fabric!

I've had this lovely lavender brocade in my stash for years, just waiting for the right project!  As you can probably tell, this fabric used to be part of a different garment.  I can't even really describe what it was, but it had royal purple ribbon trim sewn ALL over it!  I bought it (whatever it was) at a costume sale in college, simply because I thought the fabric was pretty.  Long ago, I took the garment apart and painstakingly removed all of the ribbon trim.  I wish I had pictures of what it looked like before.  :p

Anyway, before I cut out my corset, I serged all the raw edges of the fabric and washed and ironed them.  I also cut out two layers of coutil (also previously washed and ironed) for each fashion fabric piece.  I flat-lined the fashion fabric with one layer of coutil and serged the pieces together at the long edges.  The second layer of coutil became the lining.  I used the "sandwiching" method of construction, which the tutorial describes better than I could.  And I stitched the boning channels through all layers of the seam allowances.  

The bones, busk, grommets, and lacing ties all came from the kit for this pattern I bought at corsetmaking.com, which it seems they no longer carry.  Still a great site for corset supplies, though.

I only ended up using about half of the bones, and none of the bone casing.  The kit did not include grommet-setting supplies, so I had to find those myself.  Finally tracked them down at Michael's.

I still need to bind the top and bottom edges, and I want to add a waist tape as well.  But other than that, the fit is good and I'm happy.  With the corset, I got Anna the dress form adjusted to my measurements.

This has been very helpful for fitting purposes!

Second Mockup

I have a dress-shaped thing!  :D  It's in my sewing room.  It's pretty.  :)

Wanna see?

Of course you do!  I'm going to be mean and make you read the whole post first, ha!

I mean.... you get to watch the design grow and evolve just as I did, with the pictures of the final design saved until last as a reward!  :)

Anyway, I finally started my for-real-and-for-true wedding gown mockup on Saturday, when I began draping the bodice.  The fabric I am using for this mockup is actually the fabric I was originally going to use for the gown itself.  After I got it home I began to worry that I didn't have enough (I think I had eight yards) and I wasn't completely in love with the color.  (More on this later.)  So I bought close to 12 yards of ivory silk, which I am going to dye.  (Terrified.)

But!  The original satin is working beautifully for my mockup purposes, as it has a drape and sheen very similar to the silk satin I will be using.  I started out by folding one end over on the bias, and pinning it onto Anna the dress form over my lining and corset.

I wrapped the folded edge around the neckline, as I want both sides of the front and the swag (for lack of a better word) part that drapes around the shoulders to be all in one piece.

From this point forward we will be ignoring the shockingly messy condition of my sewing room.  kthxbai

 I started giving it shape under the arms:

 And I found that the back swag was puckering funny from where I had pinned it to match the neckline of the lining:

So I released the tension to let it lay smoothly:

Now the fun part!  I started adding tucks and pleats along the sides to give that lovely diagonal ruched look:

Asymmetrical ruching is a big selling point, I remember from working in bridal.  It helps make the waist look smaller.

For mockup purposes, I was just pinning all these pleats right onto the dress form.

After consulting my first reference image, I realized I didn't like the way all the diagonal pleats were going in the same direction.  (I'm also doing my dress in a mirror image of the inspirational gown, so that messed me up a bit.)  I reconfigured the tucks a bit to get the ones at the bottom to angle upwards from the right hip to the left waist.  I also manipulated the top of the wrapped part to create a sort of band that will carry around the back into the swag, if that makes sense.

When I had everything where I liked it, I marked the cutting line with my fabric marker, giving myself a generous seam allowance at the sides.

I also traced the top edge of the lining in the back, to get the swag to follow the line that I want.  It's hard to see the lines on this photo, but I also marked the bottom edge of the swag.

Then I unpinned everything and cut out the piece along the lines I had drawn.  I actually cut about 1/2" outside the lines, to be extra conservative.

Here's how extra conservative I was:

The pins mark the seam of the lining, and the inside marker line is approximately 5/8" outside of the stitching line.  

Here's how the swag lays in the back:

Once I could see where all the stitching lines would end up, I trimmed away the excess and got a much better feel for the finished look:

I was very happy that I was able to take it off and put it back on in roughly the same composition again.  This gives me confidence that I will be able to use the mockup pieces as patterns when I cut out my actual fabric, and successfully re-create the look that I've come up with on the dress form.

On Sunday I draped the back bodice and the skirt.  I used the same draping technique for the back as I had used on the front:

Then I cut off a length of fabric from the yardage that was long enough to reach from my hip to the floor, and pinned it onto the right side with small tucks to simulate gathers.  This design idea was stolen directly from my inspiration source, as well.

After that, I wasn't quite sure where I wanted to go with the rest of the skirt.  I started experimenting, just draping and tucking and pinning, with interesting results:

I ended up not liking it, and went out to the living room where Brian the Fiancé was watching tv.  I talked about my troubles (without going into detail) and he listened and gave me some helpful advice.  He said I shouldn't try to "wow" everyone with an amazing design, but just keep it simple and keep it "me."  Heartened by this, I went back to the mockup and re-draped the skirt with simple pleats:

I might add a pleated ruffle beneath the diagonal edge, or I may extend it to reach the floor.  I haven't decided yet.

The gathered panel at the right hip will get tucked under the bottom edge of the bodice on the finished gown.

I'm happy to say I like this simple skirt much better!  After all, there will be a detachable train to add extra drama for the ceremony and pictures.  But this is what the gown will look like for the reception - pretty, but still easy to dance in!

Now for the train.  This was last night's project.  I had purchased several Truly Victorian patterns in September, including the beautiful 1880s Butterfly Detachable Train pattern, and I can now wholeheartedly recommend it!  It goes together quite easily (though the directions don't really make sense until you're actually doing it) and definitely has the "wow" factor I was hoping for:

However, since this pattern was made to be worn under a Victorian bodice, some adjustments need to be made.  It would look a little funny if I just tacked the train on in the back with no transition, I think.  So I grabbed another Truly Victorian pattern I recently acquired, the 1883 August Overskirt.  I only cut out the front and side pieces, since the back would be redundant, sewed them up and attached one side of the overskirt to the train, pinning the other side in place for now.

I love how it looks from the side!  Not so much from the front.  I'm going to play with making it a bit shorter and see if I like it better.  I may also add some diagonal ruching to the top front to make it blend better into the gown bodice.

So that's my design!  Other than a bit of tweaking, I now know what my wedding gown will look like!  :D  I'm very excited.  Now onto the extremely scary bit - dyeing my fabric!  Eek!